1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a portable terminal, for example, a cellular phone, a Personal Handyphone System (PHS), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), etc. More particularly, the present invention relates to a portable terminal equipped with a camera comprising a photography function and a character reading method together with a character reading program using a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in portable terminals, such as a cellular phone, PHS, etc., the occasions for inputting character data in a portable terminal has been increasing. Most occasions include creating and sending E-mail messages, inputting a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to access the Internet and inputting a keyword term to use a search engine site on the Internet.
However, because of a portable terminal's compact size, only a small number of keys can be installed, which makes it difficult to mount a QWERTY arranged keyboard (QWERTY refers to the order of the top row of letters) suitable for inputting characters widely used on a personal computer (PC).
Therefore, in a portable terminal, commonly a plurality of characters (a letter, number or other symbol) is assigned to one key and the character inputted changes by the number of times the assigned key is depressed. However, in the previously mentioned portable terminal in which a plurality of characters is assigned to one key and the character inputted changes by the number of times the assigned key is depressed, many successive key depressions are required for inputting a character which makes manipulation complicated and takes time to accomplish.
Accordingly, in the conventional prior art (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-Open (Kokai) Patent Application No. 2002-111841 titled “PORTABLE COMMUNICATION TERMINAL AND CHARACTER READER”), technology has been proposed which uses an image of a character photographed (optically read) by a screen image pickup device and supplied by acquiring the corresponding character code.
However, in the conventional prior art mentioned above, in order to photograph a character using the portable terminal equipped with an imaging device, the portable terminal must be placed considerably close to the character and any slight movement of the portable terminal greatly influences the photography. Particularly, when inputting consecutive characters, since the portable terminal must shift after recording a character, there is a problem of easily losing sight of the immediately preceding photographed characters.